Cisco Systems Hosts Bay Area Multi-Cultural Town Hall Meeting

February 1, 2006

By Terry Timm Moos, News@Cisco

Creating corporate cultures that allow multi-cultural individuals to flourish will be among the topics discussed as women of color from around the region gather at Cisco Systems for the Working Mother Media's Bay Area Multi-Cultural Town Hall meeting.

Cisco is the host sponsor for today's event in San Jose, which showcases women of color. The agenda covers the importance of racial and ethnic identity, effective communications to build trust, and advancing corporate environments that reflect the needs of women of color. The meeting is one of several carried across the country, part of Working Mother Media's Best Companies for Women of Color initiative. Launched in 2001, this initiative has led the way in creating a dialogue about the intersection of race, ethnicity and gender in the workplace. Working Mother Magazine named Cisco to its list of 100 Best Companies for Women in 2005.

Noni Allwood, Senior Director of Human Resources responsible for Gender Diversity Development for Cisco, kicks off the discussion for the Multicultural Town Hall. In addition to high technology, speakers also include a distinguished panel of executives from the communications, legal, educational, literature, financial, and non-profit sectors of business.

"One of the issues that is important to Cisco is encouraging all women in their pursuit and development of technology careers, including women of color," explained Allwood. "There are many challenges inherent in the engineering and technology fields, especially for women. It is vital to examine the workplace and build an environment that looks at the challenges," she continued. "This event gives us the opportunity to have this dialogue in a constructive way."

Gender Initiative launches programs for change in technology

Sponsorship of the Multicultural Town Hall is a natural for Cisco because of its history of supporting diversity measures throughout the company, and importantly, to address issues facing women in the technology industry. What began as a grassroots movement by employees who met informally to network and share ideas has developed into the Gender Initiative, launched in 2000, and continually expanded through several programs around the world.

Women Action Networks (WANs), for example, empower female employees to grow professionally through networking, mentoring, and career development resources throughout Cisco's global operations. This increases Cisco's competitive advantage and helps the company achieve its mission by capitalizing on the talents and skills of its women employees.

According to Allwood, the worldwide WANs not only help women chart a course for their career progression, but offer guidelines on how to contribute to the success of their local offices, reach out to their communities, build sustainable support networks, and display and grow leadership talents. "We are encouraged by the results of the WANs," she said. Today, there are nearly 3,000 women actively involved in career progression, and the number has grown from 11 to 31 active WANs worldwide, including Australia, China, Japan, South America, and Canada, and this number continues to grow. "To be successful, the WANs require the support of management, and this support is evident in the 31 locations."

K through College -- Other successful Cisco sponsored programs support women and girls in their pursuit of high-tech education and employment. Early programs for grades K-8 encourage building games to raise awareness and make technology understandable. The company's Girls Get IT education program travels to U.S. high schools to introduce and recruit girls to careers in the tech field. At the college level, Cisco provides women mentors to encourage students to choose careers in technology. "Our women employees are out there and attracting more women to the company," explained Allwood.

"From our perspective as an employer, we need to encourage girls and women to take an interest in technical fields. Today, only about 27% of technology students are women," said Allwood. "But the issue goes deeper than gender. Statistics show that U.S. student interest level in technology careers is declining radically - and this is true of both women and men. Other countries are graduating far more students in engineering each year than in the U.S., so the talent pool is diminishing," she continued.

Allwood sees technology as a very good field for women. "Success in technology is achieved through collaboration and teamwork, diverse thinking, communication, and creativity," she said. "These are areas where women can - and do - excel. However, if we start looking at the number of women of color in high technology fields, the numbers are much lower than women in general, which is another reason Cisco is so supportive of events such as today's Multi-Cultural Town Hall," noted Allwood.

Providing encouragement to existing employees

"At Cisco, we are concerned about the pipeline of new talent, but also about the promotion and advancement of our current employees," said Allwood. "It is easy to feel isolated, especially if you don't have a safety network, so we make sure women have access to support and resource networks."

"Most high technology companies are dealing with diversity issues, but Cisco has been innovative in building a connection with communities and customers - and particularly with girls in technology," Allwood noted. "This is an area where Cisco is making a big mark around the world."

From the Gender Diversity Council to every executive in every division, the company takes a holistic approach to encouraging and nurturing employees. "It is essential for us to see the big picture of technology as it impacts society, and not just women," said Allwood. At Cisco, every function leader is now accountable for a plan for how they will evolve the corporate culture and remove barriers. Added Allwood, "What makes this unique is that these initiatives have been driven by employees and are expanding to every employee in the company. We are leveraging our culture, visibility, and accountability to get things done."

Terry Timm Moos is a freelance journalist located in Seattle, Wash.